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Jacob Wysong

English Composition II

Professor Morean

19 July 2020

Marijuana Legalization

In the United States, there has been a lot of talk about whether marijuana should be legal

for recreational use. We have a lot of reasons to legalize it and it’s not just because we want to

all just smoke marijuana for fun. If marijuana became legal the United States would be able to

tax it. They could tax it in different ways and use the money to further improve parts of the

country. In America, we have three popular addictive drugs that are legal. Two are legal to use if

the consumer is over twenty-one, underage consumption is still very high with those drugs, and

the third is legal to use for every age. Yet, the most popular non-addictive drug in the country is

still illegal. Finally, in recent years it has been popular for medical use because of some of the

positive effects it can have when dealing with some illnesses. Marijuana is legal for medical use

in thirty-three states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. Of those thirty-three states, eleven have

legalized it for recreational use, along with Washington D.C. The history of marijuana

criminalization is also rooted with racial discrimination. The crime rate in the U.S. would lower

if marijuana is legalized. Diving more in depth into those points and more will help explain all of

the positive things that will come with legalizing marijuana. My goal is to help explain

everything for you and persuade you to help pass the legalization of marijuana in the U.S.
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When the colonies first formed, they grew a lot of cannabis. They used it in order to get

hemp. Hemp was used in the making of different things like rope and paper. Eventually as the

colonies started to grow there became more imports to the colonies and the need for hemp

decreased, but cannabis was still grown because “marijuana was becoming and increasingly

popular ingredient in medicines and tinctures” (Mcnearny). Marijuana wasn’t used as a

recreational drug until the 1910’s. When refugees from Mexico fled to the U.S., they brought

marijuana with them. Later during the 1930’s it became popular within the black community.

After prohibition ended “straight-laced bureaucrats looking for another target turned

their attention to marijuana” (Mcnearny). It became illegal in 1937, after the passage

of the Marijuana Tax Act.

In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act listed Marijuana as a Schedule I drug and it made

it illegal for any type of use. In 1973, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize marijuana.

In 1996, California became the first state to legalize cannabis for medical use. Finally, in 2012,
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Washington and Colorado became the first two states to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Currently there are 23 states that still have marijuana for recreational use criminalized. There are

33 states that allow for it to be used for medical use and 11 of those states also have marijuana

legalized for all uses. The history of marijuana criminalization is rooted with racist ties. The

main users of marijuana were minorities in America before it was outlawed. Marijuana history is

important to understand when looking at why it should be legalized now. There wasn’t a real

reason as to why marijuana became illegal. Once politicians realized that they didn’t get there

was with alcohol, they turned their heads to marijuana. The law made out of anger and out of

hate for minorities shouldn’t still be around, especially when they are banning something that

can be useful in society.

The biggest benefit that comes from legalizing marijuana is money. Most marijuana

purchases are done illegally considering it is illegal in 39 states. The black market is considered

the market where illegal things are bought and sold. “the annual spending on marijuana in the

illegal black market, which was estimated to be $50 billion in 2016” (Arnold). In 2016,

marijuana was already legal in several states. With that being said the annual spending for

marijuana that year was obviously going to be over $50 billion. The market would likely grow

with legality, which would make the market worth even more money. Many economists have

started doing research into how much the U.S. could potentially make off of marijuana taxation.

“Thus the projected revenue gain is $6.8 billion” (Tyson). This means that the U.S. would gain

$6.8 billion every year. The revenue could also increase if the medical marijuana were taxed and

not just the recreational. “Marijuana excise tax revenues were $130 million in 2015” (Mace). In

2015, 4 states had legalized marijuana. They were Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska.

To put that in perspective, none of those states hold less than 6% of the U.S. population.
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There are also estimates that can be made off of how one state is doing. “It can be

estimated that the national sales tax base for recreational marijuana could be between $15.9

billion and $17.0 billion per year (assuming market conditions currently in Colorado prevail

nationally)”(Tyson). Overall, the estimates for how much revenue the U.S. could generate from

tax revenue vary. There are many variables that go in to calculating the revenue. One thing that

hasn’t changed from each calculation is that the U.S. would bring in more money and could use

the money to keep improving the country. There are many things that are put on hold in the

United States because we don’t have enough money, or we can’t move the budget around. With

the billions of dollars generated from marijuana, there are many things that can stop being put on

hold.

There are many drugs in the world that are worse than marijuana. In fact, there are other

drugs that are legal and more harmful than marijuana. The first of those drugs is caffeine.

Caffeine is a drug found mainly in coffee, soda and energy drinks. Caffeine changes the way you

act and is addictive. Caffeine is used mainly in the morning by people to help them wake up. It

provides a boost of energy. In a study discussed later it was rated a 70/100 on the scale of

addictiveness. This as you will see is close to the likes of nicotine and alcohol.

The second drug that is legal is nicotine. Nicotine is a drug found in cigarettes and vaping

products. Nicotine is a drug that is very addictive. From that same study nicotine had a rating of

99/100. With a rating of 99 it can be assumed that it is one of the most addictive drugs in the

world. This drug can be purchased by anyone over the age of 21 and it is not a drug that you

need a prescription for.

The final legal drug is alcohol. Alcohol is a drug that can be purchased by anyone over

the age of 21. Like nicotine, a prescription is not necessary for the purchase of it. Alcohol is in
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beer, vodka, whiskey, rum and other beverages. On the addictiveness scale alcohol was rated an

81/100. Alcohol is also a drug that can be overdosed on. According to Gable it takes 10x the

normal does of intoxication to die from alcohol. “Statistics show that every year about 300

people die in the United States from an alcohol overdoes, and for at least twice that number of

overdoes deaths, alcohol is considered a contributing factor” (Gable).

Marijuana is an illegal drug in most of the United States. On the addictiveness scale it

was rated a 22/100. In order to overdose on marijuana, you have to take an estimated 1000x the

dosage needed to reach intoxication. “I’ve found no published cases in the English language that

document deaths from smoked marijuana, so the actual lethal does is a mystery” (Gable). The

reason that the lethal dosage is estimated is because nobody knows how much marijuana you

need to take to overdoes because it doesn’t happen. With marijuana never being overdosed on

and the lack of addictiveness makes it one of the safest drugs in the world.

The study of addictiveness was done by Dr. Perrine. Overall, there were six drugs ranked.

It gave nicotine the most addictive rating of 99/100. The next was alcohol as it was rated 81/100.
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The third drug was heroin and it was rated 80/100. Fourth was cocaine at a 71/100 and close

behind was caffeine at 70/100. Marijuana was the sixth drug and it was ranked all the way at

22/100. There were three main takeaways. “The most addictive drug, nicotine, is not only not

scheduled, it can be purchased without a prescription by anyone over the age of 18” (Gable). At

the time of the article the age to buy nicotine was 18 and it has since changed. “Cocaine is about

as addictive as coffee or tea’s caffeine” (Gable). “Alcohol is about as addictive as heroin”

(Gable). Those three takeaways show how legal drugs are far more addictive than marijuana and

are close to the addictiveness of illegal drugs.

There is another positive aspect to marijuana than just it’s lack of addictiveness.

Marijuana is also used medically. It is legal in 33 states to have marijuana for medical use. With

the legalization of marijuana, it would also allow for the use of marijuana medically. “Marijuana

‘effectively reduced chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy” (Kahn).

This helps show that marijuana can help patients who are experiencing pain. The use of
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marijuana will alleviate the pain and allow for the to be more comfortable. “ ‘Increase[s] caloric

intake and produce[s] weight gain in HIV positive patients’”(Kahn). The use of marijuana

medically could go a long way in helping eating disorders. It is no secret that when someone

smokes marijuana they get the “munchies” or urge to eat. This trait can be used to the advantage

of people medically. For people that struggle with not eating enough, using medical marijuana

could help them gain weight and become healthier. There could be worries over side effects of

marijuana use medically. As we have determined earlier it is not an addictive drug, so that is not

a side effect that should be worried about. “Health risks of cannabis and cannabinoids were

certainly confirmed but were not beyond those tolerated for many medicinal drugs” (Kahn). This

helps show that side effects shouldn’t be a bigger worry for marijuana than any other medical

drug. All medical drugs have risks and yet they are still used to help patients heal, marijuana

shouldn’t be an exception to that. There are common misconceptions about marijuana, and it is a

reason as to why marijuana is illegal. Misconceptions shouldn’t be the reason as to why many

people aren’t getting what they need to be healthy.

There is a discussion about whether the crime rate will drop if marijuana becomes legal.

If marijuana became legal, everyone who would be arrested on marijuana related charges

wouldn’t ever get arrested. This would help the crime rate. Since the U.S. has the highest prison

population in the United States anything that would help the crime rate would be good. There are

obvious drug legalizations that would drop the crime rate even more like cocaine and heroin. The

problem with those drugs is that they don’t have many benefits towards society. There is no

reason for it to be a crime to smoke marijuana. It is shown that it can help medically and that it

doesn’t pose other addictive problems as other drugs. With the decrease in crime associated with

marijuana, there could be more resources put towards something else. There could be more time
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spent with building relationships within the community or catching murders and abusers. In the

end, there are other things that police should be doing other than worrying about whether

someone is smoking a beneficial drug.

There is a common misconception about marijuana. These misconceptions have been

around ever since marijuana first became illegal. If we are going to move forward, then debating

and proving these misconceptions wrong will help move the legalization of marijuana forward.

Charles Stimson wrote an article about why marijuana is bad and shouldn’t be legalized. This

article was full of misconceptions and lies. By looking what he said about marijuana and other

things we can debunk negative things that people think about marijuana. “Marijuana is an

addictive, gateway drug” (Stimson). First marijuana is not addictive. Earlier it was shown that

marijuana is not addictive and definitely not as addictive as other legal drugs. The second part is

he said marijuana is a gateway drug. Saying it’s a gateway drug means that it is a drug that many

people start with and it causes them to use stronger and more addictive drugs in the future.

“Neither the NASEM nor the National Institute of Justice were able to claim a casual link

between cannabis use and the use of other illicit drugs, with the current studies available”

(Kahn). Since there can’t be a link made between the two it is unfair to say that there is one.

Also, the use of stronger drugs can start with marijuana, but it can start with any other drug. It is

more of an issue about the person being susceptible to the addiction of drugs than a drug making

you turn to stronger drugs. “To equate marijuana with alcohol, however, is both uninformed and

misleading. Their similarities only run skin deep” (Stimson). First, marijuana is fundamentally

different from cocaine and heroin. Second, he is right marijuana and alcohol aren’t that similar.

They are both drugs. After that they effect people different. One big difference is one is very

addictive, and one is not addictive. One isn’t used to help people medically, and one is becoming
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used medically more and more as time passes. He also argues again that marijuana is more

addictive than alcohol and nicotine. This as was shown earlier is not even close to being true.

This article was written before states legalized marijuana. He says how states won’t be able to

legalize marijuana by themselves, but as we have seen since the article was written, states have

been able to legalize marijuana by themselves.

Overall, there are many good reasons to legalize marijuana. It does have medical uses and

can help many people. There are different uses to medical marijuana as was explained. It can

help alleviate pain in some patients. It can also help people who suffer from eating disorders gain

weight and start to live a healthier life. Legalizing marijuana could also help lower the crime

rate. The United States has the largest prison population in the world. If we can legalize drug

with many benefits and it helps lower the high crime rate that would be considered a win-win by

many. There are three drugs in the U.S. that are more addictive than marijuana. Those three

drugs also don’t have medical uses. With that being said there isn’t a reason when compared to

those drugs that marijuana shouldn’t be legal. With marijuana being legal, the economy could

flourish. There are billions of dollars at stake with the legalization of it. There are many jobs that

could be made and different things that could be improved in America with the revenue increase.

Finally, there are misconceptions about marijuana. There are some people who are misinformed

and don’t know the actual benefits of marijuana. If everyone knew those benefits and didn’t

believe the misconceptions, then there is a chance marijuana would’ve been legalized already.

After the information given, there shouldn’t be much doubt as to whether marijuana should be

legalized. It is a drug that is better than others that are legalized and it would allow for people to

be more free in the land of the free.

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Works Cited

Arnold, Jason F., and Robert M. Sade. “Regulating Marijuana Use in the United States: Moving

Past the Gateway Hypothesis of Drug Use.” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, vol. 48,

no. 2, Summer 2020, pp. 275–278. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1177/1073110520935339.

Gable, Robert S. The Toxicity of Recreational Drugs. 2006,

www.americanscientist.org/article/the-toxicity-of-recreational-drugs.

Kahn, Douglas A., and Howard Bromberg. “Medical Marijuana, Taxation, and Internal Revenue

Code Section 280E.” National Tax Journal, vol. 73, no. 2, June 2020, pp. 593–

616. EBSCOhost, doi:10.17310/ntj.2020.2.09.

Mace, Christopher, et al. “Marijuana Taxation and Imperfect Competition.” National Tax

Journal, vol. 73, no. 2, June 2020, pp. 545–591. EBSCOhost, doi:10.17310/ntj.2020.2.08.

Markoff, Steven C. Is Marijuana Addictive? 1994,

www.drugsense.org/mcwilliams/www.marijuanamagazine.com/toc/addictiv.htm.

Mcnearney, Allison. The Complicated History of Cannabis in the US. 2018,

www.history.com/news/marijuana-criminalization-reefer-madness-history-flashback.

Stimson, Charles. “Why We Shouldn't Legalize Marijuana.” Heritage, 19 July 2012,

www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/why-we-shouldnt-legalize-marijuana.

Tyson, Victor P. Marijuana : Emerging Legal Issues and Federal Tax Proposals. Nova Science

Publishers, Inc, 2015. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=979572&site=ehost-live.
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